Sunday, October 30, 2011

Like A Girl? Don't Let Her Know

That's what we were taught to do by our mom, right guys? We all know that people like others who like them. But when it comes to attracting the opposite sex, it doesn't necessarily work that way.
A paper published by Erin R. Whitchurch et al. recently shows that ladies are attracted to men who play hard to get.

Image: cartoonstock.com

The researchers recruited 47 female undergrads from the University of Virginia and told them that their Facebook profile would be viewed by several males from two collaborating universities. Then, each participants would see the Facebook profile of four of the men.

In the liked-best group, participants learned that they had been randomly assigned to see the four men who had given them the highest ratings (e.g., “of all the people who saw your profile, these are the four who thought they would like you the best”).

Image: corporatespeak.wordpress.com

In the average-liking group, participants learned that they had been randomly assigned to see the four men who had given them average ratings (e.g., “of all the people who saw your profile, these four did not rate you as the highest or the lowest; they are people who liked you about average”).

After knowing what their respective ratings, the girls viewed the men's Facebook profile and rated each man according to how much they liked him.

Whitchurch found out that for the liked-best group, the ladies were attracted to the men, i.e. it replicated the reciprocity principle. Pretty common phenomenon.

For the average-liking group, the ladies however, weren't repelled by the men. In fact, they were attracted to these men who'd earlier given them an average rating—even more attracted than were participants in the liked-best group.
In other words, women were more attracted to men whose liking for them was uncertain than to men who they knew liked them the best.

Image: businessinsider.com

The researchers wrote that by "playing hard to get", the mystery the shrouds a man makes him more attractive to women. Moreover, she would be guessing and dying to know the amount of love he actually has for her. And the women in the uncertain condition reported thinking about the men more than did women in the like-best condition.